


The Good Life

by facetiouspenguin



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Blood, Bonding, Canon-Typical Violence, Drabble, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Self-Harm, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-11 01:52:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4416506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/facetiouspenguin/pseuds/facetiouspenguin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That lull between missions, where the peacefulness can’t last long enough. And all the moments when you realize you love the way you live now more than you did before. Even in the midst of battle, or covered in blood.</p><p>Rating bumped up to M for detailed violence.</p><p>A series of drabbles, now with more* continuity**!!</p><p>*not guaranteed<br/>**questionable</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Quiet Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first story I've posted on here - I've got fanfics that I haven't updated in 4+ years on fanfic dot net so when I started writing this it came as a surprise to me. Krieg/Maya and also general bonding and understanding despite obvious obstacles like mental illnesses are my weaknesses and I must share them with you. I might make more drabbles in the future, so tell me what you think :3c

Sanctuary’s rooftops were nice today, a gentle breeze whistling past the flying city, which was gratefully free of the stench of skag urine and gore. Maya sighed wistfully, enjoying it while it lasted. She loved the adventure and being a Vault Hunter, a powerful Siren (second only to Lilith, perhaps), but just having a moment where she could just rest peacefully and be happy for her life now was a great stress relief.

Just as she closed her eyes to bask in the light of the Pandoran sun, she heard shuffling, the sounds of someone climbing onto the roof to sit next to her. Curious, she peeked one of her eyes open to see Krieg sitting next to her, relaxing just as she was, the one eye revealed by his mask staring up at the sky in its usual dull expression. She gave a small smile, knowing the large Psycho felt more at peace around her, which was a good feeling compared to all the poor people of Athenas always being constantly scared of her and her Siren powers.

They stayed like that for quite a while. Krieg was very quiet around her most of the time, only the shuffling of his feet or his muscles twitching tipped her off that he was still there. She could tell he was just being thoughtful of her space, perhaps wanting to have his own time to just sit there and be amazed at his new life, not feeling comfortable anywhere else but here.

 _We’ve got that in common, big guy_ , she thought with a trace of a smile on her face. Being a Siren, either people were scared of her or wanted to start worshipping her. The Vault Hunters and Sanctuary had been a welcome relief, where she wasn’t a monster or a goddess. She was just Maya, a Vault Hunter, and she appreciated that a lot more than she let on. Despite the male dominant Vault Hunting team, they didn’t give her any slack or special treatment - though that didn’t stop them from making a flirty joke or two every once and a while.

Maya tilted her head towards Krieg, which was her usual way of asking if she could lean her head on him. She learned that sudden touches or sudden movements around Krieg tended to startle him and send him on one of his rants, which almost always took a long time to help him out of. Krieg turned his head at the movement, realizing what she wanted, giving a grunt that told her she was allowed. With a small chuckle, she scooted a little closer to rest her head on his side.

It took a few minutes but Krieg eventually relaxed at her touch enough to wrap one arm around her, scooting her closer in a sudden sweeping movement that made Maya laugh. “The blue in the heart, in the mind, in the sky!!” He semi-shouted, waving his other hand toward the sky for a moment before letting it fall back to his side. He often referred to people by what he remembered most about them, such as “TINY” for Tina, “TURRET MAN” for Axton, or “DWARF” for Salvador. Some of the Vault Hunters had been offended by it for a while until they realized it was just his own way of remembering them.

She settled in next to him, his body warm against hers, the breeze becoming slightly chilly as the day faded into night. “Thanks. You’re pretty, too,” Maya replied to his statement with a sly smile and a laugh that was trying not to turn into a snort. Krieg just ruffled her hair in response to that, which actually caused her to give a snorting laugh, and even he gave a short hysterical laugh at that. “You’re lucky I like you, I would’ve punched anyone else for laughing at my snorts.”

She heard a low, grumbling, pleased noise in his chest, like a cat purring. She glanced up at him to see his eye fixated on her, searching her face - he was pleased, but surprised with her statement. “Yeah, I like you. Couldn’t you tell? It’s nice being around you - I know you’ve got my back and I hope that you know I’ve got yours.”

Krieg shifted, lowering his head to hers, touching foreheads. “Boop.” Krieg said in a silly, light-hearted tone. She responded in kind, pressing her forehead against his with a verbal “boop.” And so the feeling was mutual. The two of them were a strange pair, but she couldn’t think of anything more perfect to top an already extraordinary life on Pandora.

As she closed her eyes, starting to doze off from the combination of feeling safe near him and his warmth, she could have almost sworn she heard a soft voice say, “Thank you... Maya.”


	2. Fight Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Krieg is going a little too stir-crazy. Maya has the solution: let's go kill the hell out of some bandits. Krieg is only happy to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My goal was 1400 words. Then 1800 words. Then it got out of control, so enjoy your nearly 2300 words of Krieg and Maya stoof. Now with 10% more continuity

It was a quiet day yet again in Sanctuary, which was usually a welcome relief, only that Krieg was itching to do _something_. Anything. The voice inside his head often told him how astounded he was that they hadn’t gone nuts and killed someone yet, but then a flash of blue tattoo would enter their mind and he would remain silent. The one who owned the blue tattoo helped bring order into their lives, to bring balance to the good and evil inside them, regardless of whether or not she knew. To pass the time, Krieg had taken to scraping his buzz axe on any of the buildings around town, leaving long, jagged lines etched into their surfaces. Some of the Sanctuary citizens protested (though the Sheriff would ignore their complaints), but the other Vault Hunters assured them that this was favorable to him hurting someone in town.

‘ _7 lines on our wall_ ,’ mused the inner personality, counting the lines which they had taken to make, counting each 90-hour Pandoran day that passed. ‘ _Can’t believe we’ve lasted this long._ ’ A growl came from Krieg’s throat as he bashed the blunt side of his weapon against the wall in anger. He had waited long enough, when was it slaughtering time?? Now, not even thoughts of Maya were calming Krieg from his murder thirst. ‘ _Don’t worry, big guy, we’ll get our time to kill the deserving soon enough._ ’

“I want to hear the blood sing its song of flesh and steel, the meat… the meat!!!” Krieg wailed in heart-wrenching agony, repeatedly bashing his head into the wall, as if to punish the voice in his head for making him wait for his “meals.” He snarled when no reply came, snapping his teeth together, before returning to his task of beating his head against the wall. “BRING ON THE PAIN!!” He shouted as he became more vigorous, hearing the clack of his mask against the wall. The strap of the belt holding it in place dug into his skin - welts of blood started around the edges of his mask, leaking down his face. He could taste the metal, exciting his bloodlust, as he started to beat his head even harder into the rock hard surface of the wall.

It was at this point that Maya had walked in, pausing in mild horror upon seeing the blood pouring down his mask as he feverishly grunted and headbutt the wall. Assessing the situation quickly, she safely phaselocked him to prevent him from further harm. “Alright, that’s enough of that,” she chastised lightly, realizing he was inflicting damage on himself purposely. Maya may not know the exact reasoning why (though she had a good guess), but she surmised that a cracked skull was not going to solve the issue. “I’ve got good news, Krieg, but I’ll give you a moment to cool down a little before I set you down.” After a few minutes, seeing as his breathing had evened out, she dropped the phaselock. He landed on his feet, then to his knees, bowing his head like a child ready and waiting to be disciplined. She tread towards him with a practiced speed - any sudden movements could just make Krieg more raring to fight than usual, especially when he hasn’t gotten to slaughter anything in a while. He was a bit unpredictable in this sense, so she approached him cautiously.

She softly pressed a hand to the wound on his head, a soothing feeling drained from her fingers into his aching skull. Krieg relaxed at the touch - he was being healed, not tortured. He would sometimes forget that he was among friends, among angels, though he was a monster among them. They would try to constantly remind him that he wasn’t. Krieg knew what he was, despite what the others may object to. Maya kneeled down next to him, gently touching her forehead to the forehead of his mask, despite the wet and sticky blood that was congealing there. “Boop. Feeling better?” ‘ _What God let us be anywhere near this paragon angel, much less have her so consistently in our lives…? Who understands how we work, how we communicate?_ ’ He gave a gruff noise to her question, which probably meant yes. Krieg ignored the now rambling inner personality.

“Good. We got bandits to kill, c’mon…!” He felt his depressed state beginning to melt away slowly, perking up at the thought of finally getting to dig his poor, blood-deprived buzz axe into the meaty flesh of the deserving. Maya held out a hand to help him up, which he gratefully took - though he didn’t need it, any touch that wasn’t bad touch… was good touch. Any good touch he could find he would accept with a wild and wicked grin - the inner personality was thankful for the mask hiding most of their face, since he figured his smile would be a terrifying sight to behold.

“Let’s make the ground weep with blood!!!” He clamored as he hauled himself up with her help, his feet shuffling excitedly, waving around his buzz axe in a frenzy that could be likened to that of a small, excited child.

“I knew you’d like it. Slaughter missions like this are way more fun when you’re there,” she chuckled, grinning widely at her favorite companion, leading the way to the fast travel station with him following close behind her. If he could, he would say the same about her. Krieg found her strength and abilities admirable - her laughter even more so. Though she tended to be a badass on the battlefield, she also tended to be endearingly dorky. Through her actions and her words, Krieg discovered he was growing more fond of her than he had thought imaginable, almost enough that the inner personality believed they could become normal someday.

Someday.

It only took a few moments for them to appear in Lynchwood - a well-known town of bandits and the deserving. “Spill the heads, the guts, the gore; fight the indecent stains of blood on my skin with the flesh!” Krieg growled, mostly to himself, maybe to provoke a reaction out of the Little Man - there was no response. He seemed to be sitting back and watching the show, since there was nothing he could do in battle. Krieg scoffed at being ignored by the Little Man, turning to the Siren who was waiting for him to pull out of his rambling, her patience a miracle to him, considering the other Vault Hunters got impatient with him very quickly.

“Yep, bad guys, ahoy,” Maya said, gesturing with her Maliwan to the town. “We get extra cash for elemental kills, if you’re interested. Though I’m not sure, do you have an elemental shotgun? If not I probably have one in my backpack you can use.”

“BOOMSTICK!” Krieg crowed proudly, presenting his fire elemental shotgun, a reward he had gotten from Marcus, the Heart Breaker. He made sure the magazine was loaded, while Maya admired the shotgun. “I’m ready to shank and smile!” He gave a short, excited, maniacal laugh, his partner giving a slight smile and a nod.

Krieg took the front, as usual, with Maya bringing up the rear. The duo always stirred up trouble by their appearance alone - a burly Psycho and a deadly Siren - and being well-known Vault Hunters and having large bounties on their heads from Hyperion was always a plus for finding trouble. Krieg bellowed as he ran down the main street, alerting the entire bandit population, pumping them with fiery bullets from his shotgun, sending them screaming. Maya, not to be outdone by her companion, jumps into the fray, phaselocking one of the surrounding bandits. Her elemental effects would even hit the ones closest to her phaselocks, causing them to start screaming about their burning flesh. Krieg's buzz axe sliced through the burning and corroding bandits, adding to their elemental kill count.

From many years of monk training, Maya gripped one of the bars from the ledge, falling with grace on the head of a bandit. She quickly drew her shock pistol, zapping him and his shield with one shot - a few more bullets sent him to his knees,gurgling angrily as he died. "You're dead, what a shocker," she couldn't resist laying down a pun, snickering to herself. She turned at more bandit screaming, seeing burned corpses littering the ground, Krieg's handiwork.

"Looks like I need to play catch up." Maya commented as she heard Krieg's usual maniacal laughter and rambles in the distance. She ran in the general direction of his voice, popping bandits in the head with her pistol, tossing a few into her fiery and corrosion phaselocks. "What element are we missing..." She pulled up her ECHO to check the kill counts, only to hear a loud BOOM!

"EXPLOSIONS OF LIFE, BWAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

Oh, yes. That.

Krieg was having a ball, extremely overjoyed with slaughtering bandits after such a huge bout of deathlessness. The squeals and screeches of sheer terror and murder was music to his ears, which he hummed along with in-between his howls of laughter. “DEVOUR YOUR LUNGS OR I WILL STRIP THEM AND BOIL THEM IN YOUR SWEAT!!” Krieg bellowed and screeched his enjoyment in his strange and morbid ways, a pleased expression hidden under his mask. There was no voice telling him what was right or wrong, just him and his buzz axe and his guns, the taste of blood and metal and the ringing in his ears.

A lilting voice and the snort of laughter broke through his murder fun symphony - now with 75% more explosions - and he was surprised when it didn’t catch him off-guard as it would normally. Perhaps he was getting more used to her presence in battle, as she launched her phaselocks into the throng of bandits, tossing her grenades. Yes, it was undeniable that he was elated to battle side by side with his favorite, deadly Siren; he grinned ferociously as he watched her stuff a grenade down the pants of a Bruiser, walking away like a badass as he exploded into a rain of blood and guts. He cackled joyously as he started throwing grenades at the enemies, thrilled that she was enjoying it as much as he was.

It wasn’t long before the bandit population of Lynchwood had completely dwindled to nothing but the sniveling cowards hiding away inside the buildings. There was no need to kill them, as Maya’s counter indicated they had met their bandit quota for the reward. Both of them were splattered with blood from the last explosive battle, glancing at each other and laughing. Krieg reached out and brushed a bit of bandit intestine off of Maya’s shoulder, which earned him a snicker and that wild grin he absolutely adored.

“Thanks, Krieg. That was a hell of a lot of fun - I’m really sure we both needed that,” she turned, heading towards the fast travel station. Once in Overlook, Maya made her way over to the Bounty Board. He followed, staring at her back, scrutinizing her carefully, like a wild creature he wasn’t sure how to approach.

‘ _You want to say thank you, don’t you?_ ’ His inner personality suddenly said, nearly startling him. ‘ _It’s not that hard. Even if it’s just a touch on her shoulder, it’s better than screaming about poop._ ’ Krieg grumbled, glancing down at his blood-stained hands, suddenly anxious. Fighting: good, great, powerful. Social skills: bad, horrible, terrible. He had easily caught up to her with his anxious stride, blinking at her and reaching out with one hand with as much caution as Maya would often give to him.

He softly and carefully placed his hand on her shoulder, which stopped her. Maya faced him, looking up into his eye. “Something the matter?” The look in his eye was telling her something, perhaps something he wanted to say but couldn’t. She took his large hand in both of hers, the blood of the bandits congealing and making the touch slightly awkward. “Did you have fun?”

“I powdered my cockatiel for the ribcage slaughter!!” Krieg shouted, reminiscent of their first meeting. It earned him another smile from her, which always softened his hardened heart.

“That’s good, I’m glad you had fun.” Maya replied, interpreting his words. “I guess this is what’s called a… date?” She laughed, maybe a bit… nervously? With a slight blush? No, not Maya. She merely only liked him, nothing more. His unrequited feelings of love, adoration, admiration, and slight obsession would not be given back to him, especially in his Psycho state of mind.

“Anyway, here’s the guns Hyperion gave us for the contract, and your share of the money!” She handed him the unique aftermarket sniper rifle as she put hers away in her backpack, the money evenly splitting onto their separate Comms.

She seemed about ready to go until she paused, as if she just thought of something, leaning up and wiping off the side of his mask of blood. He blinked down at her, puzzled, until she pressed a kiss to the now clean part of his mask, his eye going wide as saucers. She laughed, darting off before he could even react, using the fast travel station to return to Sanctuary; she had probably been just as anxious as him.

Krieg could only stand there, his usual maniacal laughter bubbling out of his throat, until he ran off with a uproarious howl to wipe out the stalkers in the area, in order to express his utter joy, until he collapsed to the ground and slept, his dreams good for once. ' _You did good, big guy. You earned this one._ '

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I was gonna write a team bonding exercise for the whole team but this idea spilled out of me. I'm not sorry, though.


End file.
